Interviews

Q&A WITH JUAN RODRIGUEZ

02 Mar 2009Juan Rodr?­guez scored his first goal on the season against Numancia; it was a vital goal since it gave the three points to Deportivo. The Andalusian talked to newspaper La Opini??n A Coru?±a and reviewed his participation in the game, also in the rest of the season.

Q:That first goal was resisting to you throughout this season.
A: I have hit the post two or three times, but I was failing, so Iâ€™m happy, because it was my first goal on the season and the most important thing is that the team could add the three points.

Q: Also because it came in a moment when the team seemed jammed and resigned to a draw.A: Yes, but here everyone is ambitious, we all like to win until the last minute and we can not relax, because anything can happen in football, although itâ€™s true that in the first minutes we had options to score the goals, but the ball didnâ€™t want to enter and we knew they were going to attack, and that our options were going to come through counterattacks.

Q: You should have shared the goal with Lafita, who left you the ball to score. A: It is a spectacular move, because he took the ball in midfield and ran until he gave me a pass to the hole, part of the merit is for him.

Q: It seemed that your control over the ball wasnâ€™t perfect and that it would stay too short, did you fear the ball would escape from you? A: No, because you are in a race and what you want is to see the ball staying ahead, because if it stays too short, later it might not enter. The important thing is that it served to get the goal.

Q: And you had to play closer to the area, as a right winger, to get your first goal, I think you already tried in almost all the positions, how do you felt playing in this new position? A: It is something that has recurred until now, of course I play in midfield, which is my position, but the coach is the one on charge and if he decides to put you there, you should do your best effort to help the team, it is normal that when you play at one side, you will have more approaches than when you do it as a pivote.

Q: I guess that after seeing how the game occurred the team is satisfied with the result, and looking at the standings, although you spent three matchdays without a win, you still in the fight for UEFA and only three points away of Champions League. A. But we must go game by game, because in football if we win a game we are thinking about the Champions League, and if we lose people talks that we no longer aspire to the European positions. Itâ€™s true that we are currently tied with the European spots, but now we are eighth we donâ€™t even are in UEFA, so we can not think of the Champions League. Next week we have a vital game and if we win, we will give an important step in the table, but we have to continue working with the same humility and hope.

Q: What seems clear is that the squad will no longer talk about relegation during this season, right? A: I think we must be ambitious and now we canâ€™t think of relegation, though people said the team was bad, that it wasnâ€™t in a good run, we have five weeks without losing and that is quite important in Primera, hopefully this will continue because everybody likes to win and climb in the table.

Q: I suppose this victory has helped to heal the wound that was opened due the elimination in UEFA. Yes, because although we still thinking about the elimination, what we must do is to focus on the league.

Q: The team is suffering many injuries now, do you think is paying the accumulation of games since it started to compete very soon on the summer? A: It is true that we started the season quite early due the Intertoto, and now we have many injured men, but hopefully we will recover them as soon as possible, and that they wonâ€™t fall down again, because everyone is important and when you have all the troop available, we are in better conditions to compete.

Q: You are kept apart from the injuries. You have played in all of games in liga, Copa and just missed a clash in UEFA. It's almost the season in which you have enjoyed of more continuity at Depor. A: I can be happy, because I'm playing almost everything, and the goal of every season is to try to overcome the numbers of the previous one. In my first season here I played more than thirty games, in the last one the same, and on this one, I think I have already exceeded those numbers, so you can not relax, neither feel satisfied and you have to improve every day and try to surpass yourself.